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Environmental concerns

Environmental news: 2009

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Media reports on the environment:

2009-JAN-20:
Massive ice shelf in Antartica set to collapse:
A flat-topped shelf of ice is ready to collapse into the ocean at
any time. It has an area of thousands of square kilometers and is held in place
by a 40 kilometer (24 mile) strip of ice that is only 500 meters (1600 feet)
wide at its narrowest point. In 1950, that strip was almost 100 km (60 miles)
wide.

2009-FEB-10: New process for manufacturing LED lights: The
Centre for Gallium Nitride at Cambridge University in the UK has developed a
new way of making light emitting diodes (LEDs) that would only cost about 10%
of present models. The process grows crystals on silicon instead of the more
expensive sapphire. They contain no mercury to cause disposal problems. Their
life expectancy i about 100,000 hours. Professor Colin Humphreys, the lead
scientist on the project said:

"This could well be the holy grail in terms of providing our lighting needs of
the future. We are very close to achieving highly efficient, low cost LEDs
that can take the place of both traditional and currently available low energy
light bulbs." 2

2009-APR-20: Peru: "Super Tree" device cleans pollution from
atmosphere: Tierra Nuestra (Our Earth) is a company in Peru that has
developed an Urban Air Cleaner (UAC) called "Super Arbol" or "Super
Tree" It is a small structure that sucks in air, combines carbon dioxide,
germs, bacteria, and other pollution with water inside the device. It pumps
out clean air. The device produces mud and non-potable water that can be
pumped into a sewer. It cleans about 200,000 cubic meters of air daily.
A demonstration unit has been installed in Lima, Peru, where the World Health
Organization claims that the average air pollution is nine times higher than
allowable limits. 3,4

2009-APR-29: World: " 'Extreme' rain follows
global warming:" Richard P. Allan of the University of Reading, U.K. and
Brian J. Soden of the University of Miami, FL reported the results of a study
that reveals: "... a distinct link between rainfall extremes and temperature,
with heavy rain events increasing during warm periods."

They found that satellite data revealed a greater increase in extreme
rainfalls than could be accounted for by present-day computer simulations.
They believe that it is crucial to find out the cause for this discrepancy
quickly in order to understand global warming and its effects on the water
cycle.10

2009-JUL-01: World: Animal and plant species going extinct: The
International Union for Conservation of Nature reported that 869 animal
and plant species have gone extinct over the past 500 years, 290 additional
species are considered critically endangered and possible extinct, and 16,928
are now threatened with extinction. The latter value includes: "... nearly
one-third of amphibians, more than one in eight birds and nearly a quarter of
mammals." This implies that the international agreement made by most
governments in 2002 to bolster biodiversity will fail to meet its 2010 goal.
The authors of the study wrote that the number of extinctions is "a gross
underestimate but it does provide a useful snapshot of what is happening to
all forms of life on Earth." Report editor Jean-Christophe Vie said: "It's
much more severe than the economic crisis or the bank crisis. You can lose a
core industry but you can rebuild one. In nature, if you lose it, you lose it,
and you're losing a lot of capital that cannot be replaced." 5,6

2009-JUL-02: Germany: German Chancellor expects G8 agreement on 2 Cº limit:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that she expects leaders from the
Group of Eight industrialized nations to endorse a goal of limiting global
warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius. 7

2009-JUL-04: USA: Orthodox religious leader organizes environmental conference:
His All Holiness Archbishop Bartholomew, Patriarch of Orthodox Christian Church, is organizing a
world-level and interfaith symposium to examine the "moral aspects of the
ecological problem" of the Mississippi River. It is titled: "Restoring
Balance: The Great Mississippi River" It will take place on "the lower part of
the Mississippi on 2009-OCT-18 to 25. Past symposia have been at the Nile
Delta, Arctic, Amazon River, Baltic Sea, Adriatic Sea, Danube River, Black Sea
and the Aegean. 8

2009-JUL-17: World: Episcopal Church, USA
adopts Earth Charter: The church adopted a resolution at its 76th General
Convention that endorsed the Earth Charter. It urges its dioceses,
congregations, agencies and individuals to take action consonant with the
Earth Charter locally, nationally and internationally. At their previous
convention they passed a resolution stating that:

"...the use of fossil fuels harms air quality and public health and is
contributing to changes in the global climate that threaten the lives and
livelihoods of our neighbors around the world and be it further that the
convention affirmed that our Christian response to global warming is a deeply
moral and spiritual issue." 9

2009-SEP-25: World: Major nations support UN summit on climate change:
More than 100 heads of state are expected to attend the Copenhagen summit that
starts on DEC-15. Simply Green reports:

US President Barack Obama said that his government has given priority to
tackling climate change. He said:

"It is true that for too many years, mankind has been slow to respond or
even recognize the magnitude of the climate threat. It is true of my own
country as well."

Chinese President Hu Jintao said:

"Global climate change has a profound impact on the existence and
development of mankind and is a major challenge facing all countries. ... Climate change is an environment issue, but also, and more importantly, a
development issue. ... We should and can only advance efforts to address climate change in the
course of development and meet the challenge through common development." 11

2009-OCT-06: World: Advances in desalination plants:
The U.S. Navy has developed a prototype desalination unit that uses 65%
less energy than conventional technology. Simply Green reports that:

"... the EUWP (Expeditionary Unit Water Purification Program) Gen 2,
... also offers a significant secondary benefit that applies to land
operations. By providing an on-site source for potable water, it eliminates
the need to run convoys of tanker trucks. The generators that power the EUWP
units still use conventional fuel, but that could change. If they could be
adapted to run cost-effectively on solar power and other sustainable energy,
the door is open to desalination on a mass scale. ... Yale researchers are
developing a desalination system that uses 90% less energy, a U.K. company
called Seawater Greenhouse has invented a low energy distillation-based system
that provides fresh water for greenhouse crops, and the discovery of
stretchable salt could leader to the development of new, highly effective
nanofilter systems. 12

2009-OCT-14: International Solar Energy
Society (ISES) Solar World Congress concludes: The congress concluded that
methods of converting various sources of renewable energy to electricity --
using solar, wind, hydro and biomass
techniques -- is mature enough to implement now. They noted that the
sea level has risen by an average of 3.9 mm per year since 2000, mainly due to
expansion of the water which in turn is caused by an increase in water
temperature.

Harry Lehman, Head of Environmental Planning and Sustainable Strategies
at the Federal Environment Agency of Germany predicted that Germany and the
rest of Europe can be fully supplied by renewable energy by the year 2050.
Energy sources include a combination of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP), Photo
Voltaic Cells (PV), Solar Water Heating, Wind, Geothermal, Biomass and Hydro.

A summary of a resolution passed by the Congress published a resolution states
that:

The global target of 100 % renewable energies is both attainable and
necessary by the middle of the current century. This is motivated on grounds
of ecological, economic and social sustainability.

The world's governments are urged to implement policies to support the
rapid transition to renewable energy.

Communities and people should be actively involved and benefit from
directly from renewable energies.

The Congress applauds the first steps taken by the South African
Government in introducing the renewable energy feed-in tariff. (REFIT) and
urges the Government to speedily resolve outstanding issues and concerns.

Recommending the world?s governments to establish an obligation to use
renewable energy for water heating, as well as space heating and cooling.

On the international level, the introduction of a global feed-in tariff
system is recommended.

All aspects of capacity building for renewable energy, including
resource assessment, have to be given priority in education as well as in
research and development. 13

2009-OCT-24: World: International Day of Climate Action: People in 181 countries came together for
the most widespread day of environmental action in the planet's history. Over 5,200 events around the world were held.
People gathered to call for strong action and bold leadership on the climate crisis. See:
http://www.350.org

References used:

The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above
essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.

"Massive ice shelf set to give in 'at any minute'," The Toronto Star, 2009-JAN-20.